Star Wars: Legacy of the Force
by Romenjack
Summary: Around a thousand years before Knights of the Old Republic a Sith lord started to carve out an empire for himself in the unknown regains. Phusha is a girl who was left in the care of an alien race on an unknown world while she waits for her fathers return.
1. Prologue

Legacy to the Force

By

Romenjack

Prolog

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion I gain strength.

Through strength I gain power.

Through power I gain victory.

Through victory my chains are broken.

The Sith Code.

We Sith often speak of a prophesy that says that a force will bring a person and they will be the perfect embodiment of all the teachings of the Sith and will bring the Sith into a new age.

-Book of the Sith

Lord Daris, Sith Seer

Phusha woke up to the rumble of hyperdrive. She looked out the view port of the cargo ship, as it dropped out of hyperspace, and gazed at a world covered in a thick jungle before her.

"Wake up Phusha." the gentile voice of the man whose lap she was sitting on whispered as he shook her awake. "We made it." he looked up from staring at her out the cockpit. "We made it to Naven. Here you will be safe."

Phusha was only eight, and did not understand what was going on. She only knew that it was urgent that they left her old home and go to this planet.

The man took the shuttle in for a landing. They approached what looked to Phusha like a bunch of old, ugly buildings. The man picked Phusha up and set her on her feet. The man got up and took Phusha's hand as he led her off the ship down the loading ramp, into the hot humid forest, towards one of the old buildings. In the front of it was a strange creature that was ten feet tall and its features were all hidden by the clothing it had wrapped around its body.

Her father stopped walking turned and kneeled in front of her so their eyes met. "Phusha listen to me." He said putting his firm hands on her shoulders. "These are the Stebyn. They will protect you until I return to get you."

"But daddy, why do you have to go?" She squeezed harder on the stuffed animal in her arm that she had gotten when she was a baby.

"Because daddy has to go fight evil people, and doesn't want you to get hurt." he looked at her with loving eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small disk with a flashing light in the center. "As long as this disk is flashing I am alive and will come back for you, understand?" she nodded not truly grasping what was going on. "Alright, one more thing," he said as he cupped the disk in her free hand. "I am going to give you all the knowledge you will need to survive until I get back. Use it, expand on it, and there will be nothing to worry about." he placed his hand on her head, and closed his eyes.

Her mind was bombarded with a flood of thoughts and images and although she did not understand it all, she somehow did.

Her father took his hand away and smiled. "I love you." he said tears coming to his eyes. He lend over and kissed her on her forehead. He got up and led her to the waiting Stebyn. He said some things to it and turned around and headed for the ship they arrived on leaving Phusha behind without saying another word. In a manner of minuets he was gone.

She would have cried had it not been for the fact that her mind was now spinning with thoughts and images with one thing in particular dominating all the others; The Force.


	2. Chapter 1

Part One

Midday

Chapter 1

Long, Long ago,

Eight years later.

It is said that you can only achieve a life of greatness after you have lived a life of normality.

-Book of the Sith

-Darth Narmon

There was a flash of white light and Phusha was in a large room full of other people all sitting around a large man in dark robes. In another flash she was in a bed naked with the same man and as she leaned in to kiss him when he turned into a beautiful woman. Then in another flash she was looking at herself but the pink highlight in her hair had turned to a dark red along with the swirls that she had drawn on her arms. Her skin had paled and she was draped in dark robes and she knew what she was. She was Sith.

Phusha shot up in her bed sweating and gasping for air from the dream. Though in reality it was not a dream, it was actually a brief glimpses into the future. A vision from the force.

She stretched in her bed getting the stiffness out of the limbs and rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes. The fist thing she saw was the Stebyn in the corner of her room. His features masked by the shadows and the clothing he wore. Although she saw him every morning in the same spot he always surprised her. As if somehow he was not really suppose to be there.

"Morning," Phusha greeted with a smile. He said nothing, just stood there like all the other times she tried to talk to him. Phusha had only gotten him to say a few words in the time she had known him and even then it was always words of warning. She had found other Stebyns to be much more talkative, like Steffen.

Phusha wrapped her arm around her stuffed animal that she had slept with and set it on the table next to her bed. She stared at the flashing light from the disk that her father had given her. After several seconds she was satisfied that it was indeed still flashing.

She rolled out of her bed, her feet landing on the cold stone floor. Standing up strait she shuffled to the shower as she used the force to lift the two little strips on the counter bringing them to her hand. Grabbing them out of the air she put them on her teeth feeling the acids cleaning off any bacteria. The Stebyn were the ones that gave them to her along with a pair of fresh clothes every month.

Phusha striped out of her night clothes and stepped into the shower. She used the force to push open the hatch on the ceiling letting in a steady stream of warm water, collected from the night's rain and warmed by the morning sun.

Phusha pushed the thoughts of the visions from her head as she washed her body. She could not help but consider how much her body had changed in the past year. She had filled out and her curves had become more defined. Steffen had told her that she could not recognize her some times.

She closed the hatch and stepped out of the shower, the last drops streaming down. changing into the clothes she had set out the night before she folded up her night clothes and set them aside.

Phusha used the Force to call her lightsaber to her hand and attached it to her belt. She had made the weapon herself using the knowledge that her father had given to her. Most of the parts had been easy to find, except the focusing crystal. She had found it only by accident when she was wondering out in the forest. She had stumbled upon a cave that was full of them. After completing it Phusha had felt a sense of completion in her life, like it was something that she was suppose to do.

Phusha was heading for the door with Stebyn following her when she stopped in front of her book shelf. It was full of books that she had written herself using the knowledge in her head. She found it easier to learn and sort out the knowledge when she wrote it down and read it. She had written books on almost every aspect of the force. Among them how to build a lightsaber to all the beliefs of the Jedi and the Sith.

She knew a lot about the Sith and the Jedi and the never ending struggle between the two. She knew the ins and outs along with their strength and weaknesses, and she knew they were both wrong.

Having so many books was like having her own library in a way. Tucked into a corner between her books were three holo pads that her father had left her. Unlike the rest these were stories of fiction. She had read them all many times and every time she enjoyed them as much as the last.

She grabbed her paint set and the supplies she needed for the day and headed out the door, the Stebyn in toe behind her. Stepping out into the little village that the Stebyn had made their home, Phusha knew that they were the ruins of a long dead race and the buildings were the only thing left of their legacy. The Stebyn used them more as a conveyance than anything else. If they wanted to they could build their own cities and it was possible that they had on some other part of the planet. If they had though, none of the other Stebyn had ever mentioned it to her.

Phusha traveled out of the town into the surrounding forest, up to a large mountain bluff, which she had found the previous day. When she reached the top she laid down a blanket and sat down looking out over the top of the forest. She sat cross legged, the Stebyn standing close behind her. Setting her paint set that she had made next to her she put the canvass on her lap.

She made almost every thing that she used. The Stebyns would have been more than happy to get whatever she asked for, but Phusha found it much more entertaining to go out and find her own supplies and make things herself. When she painted using the things that she had found and made it made her work that much more meaningful. Bedsides if she didn't find her own things then she would have almost nothing else to do on this planet.

She could sometimes spend weeks finding the necessary supplies in order to do one day worth of painting. Phusha would paint just about anything that she could. She had even tried to paint pictures of her father but the images were fuzzy and he was always sad. Maybe that was because her last memory of him was him crying as he left her in the care of the Stebyns.

Despite several attempts she could never bring herself to hate her father. While he did leave her here on this planet and practically abandoned her, she could not hate what he did. He left her here to protect her from something. He left her in the care of people that would do almost anything for her and gave her all the knowledge that he knew.

More then any other reason however was the simple fact that she knew that he did not want to leave her. That if he thought for a second that he could have taken her with him or stayed with her he would have done so in a heartbeat. That him leaving her was an act of love. Knowing that he loved her made it impossible for her to stop loving him.

She often wondered about how her father knew the Stebyns. She had plotted the approximate location of this world using star maps she had created from her father's knowledge. She knew that she was somewhere near the core of the galaxy, and that there were no known hyperspace rotes to this world. At least there were none in the Jedi archive as far as she could tell.

Taking the brush she had made from her own hair she started painting the base coat with pink. She loved the color pink; she tried to use it in everything she could. When she was younger she had colored her whole body pink including her hair. She soon regretted that and stuck with streaks of highlights and drawing occasional pink swirls on her arms and body.

As Phusha continued to paint her mind started to wander to the vision she had the night before night. This was the third night in a row that she had it. She knew that at the end of it she was wearing Sith clothing and that thought scared her.

Phusha could not see any logical reason why she would ever join the Sith. The least of which being the fact that there were no Sith on Neven, and the thought of one coming here seemed fairly ridiculous to her.

More than that Phusha had carefully studied what the Sith believed, and found it flawed in more ways then one. She could not see how letting emotions dictate ones actions could ever be a smart thing. Emotions changed where logic and reason remained constant. Making a decision based on facts and simple problem solving seemed much more practical then letting emotions dictate your actions.

She could remember a time when she was walking in the forest. When she was young she would always try to lose the Stebyn following her. She could never do it longer than a few seconds but this time in that brief time that she had lost him she ran into a snake and it had attacked her. It was not poisonous so she was in no danger of dying but out of anger and a since of revenge she had hunted it down to its whole and killed it.

Instead of feeling a sense of release she only felt guilt. The snake had only been startled and attacked out of self defense it had done nothing she herself would not have done. Why then did it deserve to die? Because she had been too stupid to watch where she had been going?

At noon Phusha stopped painting and ate the lunch she had brought, comprised manly of fruit. When she was done she laid down on her blanket and closed her eyes and let the sun beat down on her skin. She was almost ready to start painting again when she heard a loud shrill sound in the sky. She knew it was no animal and traced the sound to its source. She saw a small ship come screaming down, with smoke and fire spewing from one of the sides, do a hard landing in a small clearing in the forest.

Phusha franticly got up and started heading down the cleft toward the crashed ship. Her Stebyn bodyguard moved in front of her blocking her path.

We need to head back to the village. His voice booming in her head, as he used the force to project his thoughts.

"But that could be my father." she protested.

Then he will know the way to the village and meet you there. He stated forcefully. Phusha knew he was only trying to protect her from what could possibly be a threat. She also knew that he was right, if it was her father than he would come to the village. She hung her head and followed the almost hover like movements of the Stebyn back to the village.

When they got back Phusha saw the Stebyn organizing a hunting party to go search the ship. They carried no weapons for the Stebyn used the force as their weapon. She had seen them use it only once when she was wondering the forest and a large animal attacked her. Before it could get to her, her Stebyn bodyguard unleashed a wave that disintegrated the animal and twenty meters of the forest with it. It was something she never wanted to see again.

Over here Phusha. Phusha heard Steffen calling to her. She looked over at the front of her house and saw Steffen standing beside a stone slab.

Phusha walked over to where Steffen was standing. "Do you think that it was my father?"

I don't know. If it were I think he would have landed closer village. Phusha knew that she was right and it crushed her hope. Sitting down on the stone slap she rested her chin on her hands, her bodyguard standing motionless behind her.

Phusha waited for the rest of the day for the hunting party to return and several hours into the night long after the stars had come out. Phusha would often stare at the stars at night and wonder which one her father was on. There were not many visible being this close to the core of the galaxy but there were a few and that was enough for her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by sounds of something tramping through the forest. She looked up to see two Stebyn materialize out of the woods into the clearing of the village followed by a blond haired woman wearing an orange and black uniform. Three more Stebyn walked behind her one carrying a blaster rifle on his back. Phusha recognized the women as the woman she had seen in her visions.

"Are you the one in charge here, if you are I demand an explanation!" the woman stormed over to Phusha.

"About what?" Phusha smiled not sure what to make of the woman. Here she was talking to the first human she had seen in over eight years and she honestly didn't know what to say.

"About why I have been taken prisoner." she snapped.

"You haven't." Phusha said simply.

"Then what do you call being dragged from my ship and brought here surrounded by theses... things?" she waved at the Stebyn standing around her.

"First off they are called the Stebyn-" Phusha started.

"I don't care what they are called they still-"

"Second." Phusha continued, ignoring her outburst. "I call it protection not taking you prisoner."

"Protection? Is that what you call this!?" she gestured at the Stebyn surrounding her.

"Well if you would like these men can lead you back to your ship. Just remember that it's at night that all the big predators come out. I have even known them to tear a three hundred pound beast to bits." Phusha smiled and folded her arms around her chest.

The woman looked at the forest behind her as if considering if she should believe what Phusha had told her. Finally she turned back around. "Alright." the woman sighed.

"If you will just wait a moment I will find a place for you to stay." Phusha turned around and walked over to Steffen.

There is a problem with that part Phusha. Steffen said as she got close.

"What is that? She can't stay here?"

No it's not that, she is more than welcome. It's just that we don't have any room to put her in.

Phusha frowned. "What do you mean by that? What about all the other ruins in this place?"

They are all full

"But that would mean that there was at least a hundred thousand Stebyn living here."

Closer to a million actually, Steffen stated.

Phusha was taken back in surprise; she had never seen more than a hundred different Stebyn much less than a million. She had no idea that there were so many and wondered how she could have gone for so long without her noticing.

Then she got to thinking that they must have several Stebyn in each house and for there to be over a million several dozen in some, For her to have a place all to herself showed yet again the special treatment that they had given to her all her life. What relationship could her father have had with them for them to so willingly treat her this way?

Phusha shook her head clearing her thoughts and looked up at Steffen. "Alright I will think of something." She said and turned around and walked back to the waiting woman.

"Well it would appear that you will be bunking with me for a little while." Phusha smiled. "I am positive that the Stebyn will be more than happy to get you a cot of some sort." She looked at Steffen and she nodded and headed toward the other buildings in the town. "If you would please follow me."

"I could use a good rest." she sighed. "But I never did get your name." she said following Phusha.

"It's Phusha, and you."

"I'm Sergeant Allis of the Republic armed forces."

"An officer, huh? So tell me how is the war going?" Phusha asked leading them to her house. "As you may have already guessed we don't exactly get the news around here."

"I'm not and officer I'm a Sergeant and not too well to be honest." she sighed shaking her head as they walked towards Phusha's house. "At first it was thought that we would win easy enough, because we outnumbered the Sith ten to one. But it didn't take many crushing losses for it to be obvious that we were out matched in more ways than one." Allis explained as they walked into Phusha's room.

Already there was a cot placed there with a pillow and a few blankets folded neatly on one end.

"How is that possible?" Phusha asked as she made up the bed.

"Wow, are all these paintings yours?" Allis asked surveying the room.

"Yes they are, but how is it that the Republic is so out matched?" Phusha asked trying to get her back on track.

"Oh sorry. It took us a long time for us to figure that out as well but what we finally came up with was that the Sith had only forced sensitive people in its army and all were heavily trained."

"So it is like fighting a whole army of Dark Jedi?" Phusha nodded in understanding.

"Yep. Most normal solders are just cut down without even putting up any real fight and the Jedi don't seem to be a match for them ether." Allis sighed. "The Republic would have probably lost years ago except that the Sith seem to be in no hurry to win."

"What do you mean?" Phusha asked plopping down on her bed.

"When they take a system they don't move any farther until they have completely crushed any opposition of the worlds they conquer. Only once they solidify their power do they move on to the next system. In the past ten years they have only taken four major systems. At this rate the war could last hundreds of years." Allis looked at the book shelves and pulled one off and flipped through the pages. "So what about you?'

"What?" Phusha looked up from the bed that she was fixing.

"How did you get here? Why? Was it to escape the war? And how did you become leader of these people?" she put the book back on the shelf and walked over to the shower.

"I'm not the leader of these people. They are actually my protectors, if you haven't noticed the big guy that is always following me." Phusha said pointing at the Stebyn standing in the corner.

"I just figured that, that was just part of the whole queen thing." Phusha smiled at the comment.

"And to answer your question, my father brought me here while he went off to go and fight in the war." Phusha explained. "My father somehow knew these people and asked for a favor or something. I'm still a little fuzzy on the details," Phusha smiled "and I have been living here ever since."

"And how long has that been?" Allis inquired.

"About eight years now." she shrugged.

"You have grown up living with these Stebyn?" Allis' eyes widened with shock.

"That's about right."

"Are there any other humans living here with you?"

"None that I know of, but apparently I don't know as much as I thought." Phusha whispered the last part talking more to herself than to Allis.

"Do you ever plan on leaving?"

"When my father comes to get me I do."

"How do you know that your father is still alive?"

Phusha went over to the table and tossed Allis the flashing disk. She caught it with ease and started to examine it. "As long as that is flashing he is still alive." she explained.

"Well I'm no expert but it does look like that it is transmitting a signal of some kind but I don't know any more than that." Allis tossed it back to Phusha. "So tell me did you write all these books?"

"Yeah, all but the three holo pads."

"Where did you learn all of this? I know scholars that have less knowledge and you say that you have been alone most of your life." She smiled at Phusha.

"It was a gift from my father. I don't know how he did it but he gave me all this information before he left." she shrugged.

"So is this your father?" Allis pointed at one of the paintings of a man on the wall.

"What I can remember of him yes." Phusha replied.

"He looks familiar somehow." Allis looked at it closer. "A Jedi perhaps." she paused for a moment. "Or a Sith I can't tell." She turned around and shrugged. "Sorry."

"That's alright. I didn't expect you to know anything." though that was not completely true, although she did not have high expectations she did have the hope that her father was some fearless General that was leading the Republic to victory over the Sith. Although with what she had just learned, that was not the case in any event. Though the thought did creep into her mind that he could still be a Sith.

"Well we had better get some sleep" Phusha motioned to the cot.

Allis nodded and started to lay down. "Alright, it has been a long..." Allis never finished her sentence she passed out as her head hit the pillow.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Another day another time

Destruction for the sake of destruction only begets more destruction. But destruction for any other sake will begets two things. What you wanted and more destruction.

-Darth Amros

-Book of the Sith

It had been several weeks since Allis crashed on Neven. The first thing that they did was check the damage on the ship that she had crashed in. It had been severely damaged, the hyperdrive damaged beyond repair. Short of a new ship it did not look like she would be leaving anytime soon. The real question on Phusha's mind was not whether Allis would ever be able to leave but how she had ended up here in the first place.

"How did this happen?" Phusha had asked as they surveyed the wreckage.

"We were retreating from a counter attack the senate had launched on a recently taken system, when the ship I was on issued an abandon ship order. I was unable to get to the escape pods but I was able to get in a shuttle craft and escape before the ship blew up. But as I entered hyperspace the shock wave hit the shuttle. I thought I was done for but somehow I came out of hyperspace in relatively one piece, and I landed on the nearest habitable planet." Allis kicked some of the debrie. "well tried to anyhow."

After that Phusha had shown Allis the area around the village and told her about her life on Neven. In return Allis told her all she knew about the rest of the galaxy and everything else Phusha had never seen or done. Allis became used to life on Neven a lot faster than Phusha would have thought, she also seemed fairly content after she accepted the fact that it was very unlikely that she would ever be found.

They would spend hours in their house just talking about things. Phusha would still paint but for the first time in her life she could have a real conversation with someone who was truly willing to talk back to her. The few pictures that she was painting now were of Allis in the house while they talked.

The peace did not last. One day when they were out walking through the forest looking for plants and roots to make into paint the Stebyn bodyguard that was close behind suddenly stopped moving.

Wait. the Stebyn whispered. Allis who had been learning on how to listen to him could still only here muffled sounds, but stopped just by way of caution when he spoke.

"What is it?" Phusha asked.

Someone is coming he stated simply.

Phusha was taken back by this comment. At first she had thought that maybe she had miss heard him or just miss understood. That really there was just something coming. But she could since that was not the case. "How is that possible? There is no one else here on this planet." Phusha said

"Why, what?" Allis asked puzzled not knowing what the Stebyn was saying.

There is no mistake. Someone is coming. Then Phusha could hear the footsteps of someone walking only a few feet away, obviously untrained in the ways of the forest, making enough noise to alert every predator in the area.

Phusha quietly parted some of the branches of the wall of flora out of the way. She only caught a glimpse of the tall man wearing dark robes with light hair and pale skin. Phusha jumped back almost immediately holding her hand over her mouth to prevent her from gasping.

"Who is it?" Allis asked.

"The Sith." she whispered.

They went straight back to the village to warn the others of what they saw. Phusha though was trying to figure out how Sith could have landed near here without them knowing. The only thing she could figure out was that he landed on the other side of the planet and walked the whole of the planet. But that almost seemed impossible to do no matter who you are.

The town was already in full mobilization by the time they got back. How many did you see? one of the Stebyn named Starous asked her. He was from what Phusha could gather the elder of the village.

"I only saw one but that does not mean that there were not more of them." she sated.

"It is only a matter of time before they find this place." Allis stated her face as cold as ice. "We have to get out of this place."

We are already making preparations as we speak. When they find this place they will find nothing but a hundred of our best hunters.

"Then we will fight." Phusha stated pulling out her lightsaber.

"No!"

No!

Allis and the Stebyn said at the same time.

"It is too dangerous; there is no way even the Stebyn will win." Allis warned.

We have sworn to your father that we will protect you as long as one of us is still alive.

Phusha's eye twitched in frustration. "Look I am the best fighter here and you are doing no good if your best Stebyn and his assignment are running with their tails between their legs." she paused. "And it's not like you can stop me even if you tried." she crossed her arms and waited.

It's alright Starous. Phusha was surprised to hear it came from her body guard. It will be alright as long she stays close to me.

Alright but we are putting her fully in your hands. If anything happens to her you had better not come back alive, understand? Starous stated and stated to walk away before getting an answer.

"I take it they are going to let you stay." Allis sighed. "I guess in that case I have to stay and help too, huh?"

"No you don't, and I would prefer it if you didn't." Phusha stated.

"As if!" she snapped. "I'm a trained solder. The only one here I might add." Allis glared at her. "I may not know how to use the force like you do but I have fought the Sith before."

"Hey, I can't stop you." Phusha shrugged.

"Alright I'll just go and get my blaster rifle." she turned and ran back into their house. Phusha waited till she was sure that she was inside and reached out with the force and shut the door behind her, locking it from the out side. Then for good measure she used the force to move a large bolder in front of the door. Phusha could hear her yelling after her, ordering her to open the door.

"I'm sorry about this Allis I will let you out when it is over." she looked over at her bodyguard. "Don't even think about trying it." she held up her finger. He just stood there not moving, but she could somehow tell he was smiling.

Phusha gathered some of the other Stebyn and moved them all into cover in the bushes. Her plan was to wait for the bulk of the Stebyns to engage the Sith and then she would hit them from behind with her forces. Simple enough strategy that should work on the unexpected commander.

There they waited for the better part of the day. At first Phusha had been waiting in an attack position thinking that they would show up as soon as she was ready for them. The reality was much more boring. Phusha was now leaning up against a tree trying to do some sort of battle meditation based off the knowledge that she had floating around in her head. But knowing the basics of how something works in no means the same as being able to make it work. With a few weeks of practice Phusha knew she would be more than able to affect a small area but she had never bothered to try before now, thinking that she would never be in a situation like this.

Just as Phusha was about to come to the hope that they would not have to fight at all she heard the sounds of light sabers activating. She saw the Stebyn standing in a line waiting as a line of Sith marauders materialized out of the forest. Phusha counted twelve of them, their red lightsabers glistening in front of them.

They charged into the line of Stebyns, the Stebyns in turn fired their force wave at them. The Sith threw up their force barriers to try and protect themselves from the unusual attack. The weaker of the Sith who were not strong enough were vaporized instantly. The rest were thrown back several feet. They quickly got to their feet and charged again. The Stebyn were about to fire another wave when close to twenty Sith Assassins deactivated the force cloak that surrounded them. They had the Stebyn surrounded. They cut down several dozen before the Stebyn could even turn to face the new threat.

Phusha activated her yellow lightsaber and charged out of the forest with the other Stebyn close behind her. She cut through the closest Sith and continued on to the next. The Stebyn were breaking down the Sith's Force barriers and disintegrating them. They had pushed the Sith back to the forest edge and looked like they were on the verge of retreat. Which Phusha thought was odd, it was her understanding that the Sith did not retreat from battle because to do so meant death by their masters.

"Bravo." said a dark voice from behind Phusha. "I did not think that my presence would be required for a handful of natives on this forsaken plaint. But as it sometimes happens, I was wrong." Phusha turned around to see the man she had seen earlier in the forest. Though one thing she noticed now that she did not have time to notice then was the chain bracelet that was around his left wrist, and the strange lightsaber he had on his hip. Phusha would have thought it a knife if she did not see the button to activate it. He reached down and gracefully activated it, but instead of the snap-hiss of all the other lightsabers it just gave a graceful hum. The blade was more of a dark cloud that seemed to pierce the light itself.

Phusha knew what he was. She had learned about force users like him from her father's knowledge. Back in the time the Republic was first starting there was a group of people that instead of using the force as a whole as their weapon, they would use certain elements, using the force to bend them to their advantage. But it had been said that the art was lost over a millennium ago.

But here was this Sith in front of her using the most powerful and hardest to master form, the shadow form. It was the perfect technique for assassins with the ability to bend the light around them so they were completely invisible. Their lightsabers used a specially cut crystal that they would feed the shadow force through and make a lightsaber made of shadow energy.

"Ah I see you know what I am." he smiled as he read the look on her face. "I sense the force is strong in you. Stronger than most people that I have ever met, but it is still untamed and unfocussed." he let his lightsaber hang beside him. "I think that it is you that the Force has brought me here to find. I am most curios how you got here though. I will be sure to ask you when I get done slaughtering all your friends." he smiled.

In a flash of dark smoke he vanished and in another flash he appeared next to a Stebyn over a hundred feet away instantaneously. He cut him down and disappeared in another flash of dark smoke. The rest of the Sith took the cue and attacked anew, this time with a ferocity that they did not have before. And with the help of this new Sith the Stebyn were being chopped down quickly. Phusha felt something grab her by the back of her shirt. She started to turn thinking it was a Sith but instead she found it was her Stebyn Bodyguard.

We must leave. This battle is lost and you must be protected. he did not wait for a reply and threw her into the forest. She went only because she knew she had to. They ran for a few minutes, the sound of the Stebyn dying fading away behind them. Though she could still hear their screams in her head.

Then suddenly the Stebyn bodyguard was blown to the side and crashed into a tree. He laid there motionless. Phusha was about to rush to his aid when a voice stopped her.

"Where do you think you are going?" said the dark voice of the Shadow Sith. Phusha jerked her head to see him standing there, his lightsaber activated. "It is rude to leave without saying goodbye." he smiled. He disappeared in a flash of smoke and reappeared right in front of her. Phusha would have attacked but her body would not move. "Oh, I made sure you did not try something before I was done talking to you." he smiled again as he reached out and grabbed her chin. Suddenly the shadow Sith was thrown backward twenty feet, the only thing that saved him from the Stebyn's attack was him throwing up his force barrier at the last moment.

Step away from the Sithare's daughter. Phusha's bodyguard said gasping for breath. He had put all he had into that attack and it had drained him.

"Sithare?" Phusha gasped. The Sithare was the perfect embodiment of all the Sith teachings. But to say that she was the daughter of one had to be some kind of mistake.

"I think you have it wrong." the Sith said getting up and wiping the blood from his mouth. "There is no Sithare, and there will never be a Sithare, they are a myth." In a flash he was gone and struck the Stebyn in the back, but instead of cutting through him the Stebyn like the Sith thought the blade bounced off. The Stebyn turned around and fired another force blast. This time the Sith was prepared for it and disappeared and reappeared ten feet away. The Stebyn threw off his clock revealing a suit of armor underneath that seemed to be pulsating or maybe breathing on its own.

"Obelisk." the Sith smirked. "I had been sent to this planet to find those. I must say the force works in mysterious ways. Creatures that feed on the force. Their skin so tough that even my blade cannot pierce it. They are also good for storing extra force to be released later. The drawback is that when you run out of force they get hungry and send you into a frenzy." He looked at the Stebyn. "And you look like you are at your limit. And when an Obelisk dies they send a highly toxic poison into the host and kill them. The easiest way to kill them being electricity." With his left hand the Sith sent a storm of lightning at the Stebyn. The tiered body guard tried to move out of the way but there was nothing he could do. The lightning storm stuck him. The Obelisk on his body screamed as they burned to a crisp.

The Sith turned and looked at Phusha. "And now you will come with me. I believe that a glorious life with us awaits you." he said with a twisted smile. "Behold the power of the Sith and except it as your own."

Die! Phusha's bodyguard screamed as he jumped on the Sith's back.

"You first." he spat as his blade started to warp and bend. It went around his body and struck the Stebyn in the side of his newly exposed skin. The Stebyn gasped and went down, the life draining from him.

Phusha watched the whole thing in horror unable to move. Tears rolled down her cheek as the emotions of everything that had just happened overwhelmed her.

Phusha had been taken away after the battle, and brought to the ship that the Sith had arrived on. She had learned that it was the Shadow Sith that was responsible of getting them here undetected. He had masked the ship as they entered the atmosphere, making them invisible as they landed. Phusha also thought that it was also likely that the Shadow Sith had in fact seen them in the forest and had followed them back to the village. A dark though crept into Phusha's mind as she thought on that fact. If he had seen them go to the village than it was also likely that he had seen the Stebyn leave and had them followed. If that were the case than he could have them all killed at his leisure.

Phusha had also wondered what had happened to Allis. She had been left in the room and it was more than likely that she had been found by the Sith, and they were not known for being kind to their prisoners. Phusha shivered at the thought she had been killed. It was impossible to know though and she tried not to think about it.

"If you're all we get from this stupid mission I will be very upset." spat one of the Sith assigned to watch her.

"Oh shut up and do what you are told." another said leaning against the wall of the ship his eyes closed, but Phusha knew he was still watching her through the force. "I would rather be here than guarding some stupid academy."

"Well I would rather be on the front line killing Jedi, not these disgusting creatures." the first one shot back.

"Well then you can go tell that to Lord Gildie that you are unhappy with your post and I'm sure he will be more than happy to reassign you." the second one said calmly.

Gildie. Phusha thought. Could that be the Shadow Sith? Anger built up inside her when she thought of him, and how he had killed her protector, the other Stebyns and possibly Allis. The other two could feel her anger growing as well. The guard with his eyes closed had them open and alert his hand instinctively resting on his lightsaber. The other started to look worried and became very quiet. When Phusha saw this she started to calm down and she unclenched her fist that she had not realized that he had been clinching.

"What's wrong girl, afraid of something. You didn't look scared when you were killing our comrades." the first guard said across the force cage that separated them.

"Would you shut up for two seconds." the other guard snapped.

"I'm only playing with her a little, that's all, no need to get snappy." The first guard said sitting down in a chair and glared at her.

The door then opened and the Shadow Sith walked in. Both guards stood attention. "Lord Gildie." they said in unison giving a salute to the chest.

"Has she tried anything?" he asked walking to the front of the force cage to view his prize not even bothering to give a glance to the two guards.

"We felt the force build up in her a moment ago but we didn't see her do anything." The second guard said.

"Alright, leave us and wait outside." Gildie ordered. Without question they turned and walked out the room, the door closing behind them.

"And how are you doing?" he asked her in an almost caring voice.

"I just watched as all my friends were killed and I was taken prisoner by the very same people." she glared at him.

"So you are alright then. Well I am just here to ask you where you got all those books in your room. It was your room I am assuming with the republic solder in it and full of books on the force. Books filled with information that could put the Jedi archives to shame."

"Well then you have obviously never seen the Jedi archives." she sneered.

"No, but then I assume you have not ether, and yet you act as if you have." He paused for a moment as if trying to figure out the puzzle. Then he continued, "Those books have teachings in them that surpass even the teachings of Sith Masters."

"I'm flattered."

"So back to my question, where did you get those books?" he asked again this time pushing with the force on her mind.

"I wrote them." She said simply.

"Then who taught you all of it?" he said pushing harder with the force. Phusha just pushed it aside and smiled.

"Nobody. I have known it all my life."

"Is that right." he paused slowly licking his lips. "Well then Darth Adon will be more than pleased with me when I bring him you. After I complete my first mission and get those Obelisks. My master is not one who likes it when people do not do the mission he assigned, no matter what else they might have found." He looked at her for a moment longer and twirled around his robes flying. The door opened and he left. The two guards came back in and took up their posts. Phusha just sat there and cried to herself about all that she had lost and for what she knew she was about to lose; her soul.

Phusha knew how the Sith operated. If they captured someone they thought could be of value to them. They would torcher her until she broke then they would make her tell them anything that they wanted. Then they would ether kill her or they would make her one of them. There was no stopping them it was only a matter of time. She had seen first had the power of this lord Gildie and if he was taking orders from this Darth Adon she could only imagine what his power was like.

Phusha did not know how long she was on the ship before they landed; she knew it had to have been several days if not weeks. She thought of the irony of the fact that her first trip off the planet and she was a prisoner of people she had been sent to the planet to hide from.

Gildie came walking into the room his robes flying, an exited look on his face. He quickly told the guards to leave and help unload the ship. He turned to meet her gaze after they left. "Good news." He smirked. "When I told Darth Adon about you he took a personal interest and said he wants to meet you in person. He does not do that with most of the matters let alone somebody who is not even a recruit yet." He seemed to be talking to himself more than to Phusha. "And so I told him that I would bring you to him and he said no he will come here and meet you." And on cue a tall man entered the room. He was big and well built with dark hair and darker eyes, and he walked with undeniable power. Phusha gasped as she recognized him from her dream.

"Oh, Gildie she is a bit young, even for me." he smiled. He looked deep into her eyes as if looking for something. If Phusha had thought Gildie was powerful she did not know what he was. "She looks like a half starved mouse. But I do see what you mean. The force is flowing through her. She is more powerful than some of the Brotherhood, even if untrained."

"Just imagine what she could be with proper training." Gildie smiled.

"I want you to start training her at once, I do not care what it takes I want her to be a part of us as soon as possible." Adon ordered.

"As you wish my lord," Gildie said with a bow. Adon turned and left the room leaving her alone with Gildie. He turned and looked at her. "You see I told you, you were special."

He flipped the power switch and deactivated the force cage. He stepped over to her and lifted her up off the ground by her arm and escorted her out of the ship. She did not resist, she knew that he could stop her easily enough. He walked her down the loading ramp; Phusha was hit by the harsh heat of the planet. It was green but it has a desperate feel to it, Phusha had to squint from the rush of light.

"This is the plaint Malicor V." Gildie whispered in her ear. "This will be your new home."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

All in due time

To break someone of their will and make them see your side of things is not as hard as one might think, all you need is patience and time.

-Book of the Sith

-Darth Drol

It had been over three months since Phusha had been brought to Malicor V. Her first thought was to try to escape some way but she got one look at their security and decided against it. Gildie had told her that she was free to wonder inside the training academy and ask any questions as long as she did not try to leave the facility. The Sith Masters were instructed to answer any questions that she would have and to treat her as they would any guest.

At first Phusha had thought it all some sort of trick. They were just trying to see how she would react but it became clear to her extremely fast that they were being serious. That she was to be treated with the utmost respect and many of the Sith masters even came to her to ask questions once they found out about the wealth of knowledge that she had stored in her mind.

The students seemed to look at her with both jealously, respect and fear. They knew that she was something special and more than that she was something powerful. Even though she had never had any kind of formal training she had killed many of the Sith elite solders. Not to mentions survived on a hostile world for more than eight years.

As Phusha listened to the rumors that were going around about her she found that they grew with each telling. After a few weeks she was the overlord of the native people controlling their minds with the knowledge that she had stolen from the Jedi enclave and had already mastered every light saber form, and used that knowledge to single-handedly kill over twenty of the Sith and Lord Gildie was the only one powerful enough to bring her down and even he was severely injured in the fight. The only thing keeping her from slaughtering everyone and leaving was that the Sith had planted some sort of bomb in her that could be detonated at any time.

For all Phusha knew that last part was true. If she did decide to commit suicide by Sith she would not have put it past them to have a way to fulfill her wish.

Phusha's first intention was just to commit suicide and not give them the chance to do anything to her, but she knew that as long as she was given free access to the temple there was a chance that she would find a way to escape. She knew that they knew that, and that was going to be her reasoning as well and were counting on that keeping her from doing anything rash. Though in just a few hours of being there, she saw that their security was nigh impregnable. All the exits were guarded by at least two Sith at all times and the Sith were ever aware and would see her if she tried anything. Phusha thought her best option was to just wait and hope that she would find an opening that she could use to escape.

The first few weeks she was there she would only travel between her room and the kitchen to eat, but soon found her curiosity getting the best of her and she would start exploring the rest of the temple. She would ask questions on what some things did or why it was there but for the most part she would just keep to herself and watch as things progressed. Not long after she started to get up every morning so she could watch the students in their weapons training. Every morning it was the same, they would go through three hours of group training and an hour of sparing.

It was during this hour of sparing that the students had the opportunity to win honor in combat. They would challenge other students in a test of skill and might. They used only training staffs so there were never any fatalities but she had seen some of the students come close to killing their opponent.

The combat class was lead by a lightsaber master, Lord Cillas. His skill was beyond anything that she had ever seen. Though she did realize that was not much. Cillas moved with speed and precision but more then that Phusha saw that he moved with grace and elegancy. Most Sith forms that she knew of used mostly brut force to try and overpower the opponent but Cillas would attack with purpose. Cillas knew things that Phusha could not help but be interested in, just in watching she had learned things.

Phusha saw Gildie on occasion, she learned from one of the other masters that he was the head of the academy, and was Darth Adon's right hand man in the Brotherhood, Darth Adon's inner circle of Dark Lords. There were only a hundred of them, and that they were the only ones that were above the Sith right to challenge for power. She was told that Adon did not want his best men to be killed by some up incoming who poisoned them before the match. Adon chose who was in the Brotherhood and if he felt that one of them no longer deserved their spot her would remove them himself.

This day Phusha was listening to a lesson given by one of the Sith Lords, Lord Nos Redna a member of the Brotherhood. Phusha liked Nos Redna's lessons, he never talked over people meanwhile he did not treat students like fools or imbeciles. Another action that Phusha found very unsith like. Today he was explaining the meaning behind the Sith Code. Phusha was in the back of the room quietly listening to him.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion." he said. "It is this very principle that is the basis of all other Sith teachings."

"But there is order." Phusha said suddenly. "And does not order bring peace?"

The master was taken aback by the sudden outburst and Phusha knew that if any student had done such a thing they would have been punished, but Phusha was not worried. The rest of the students stood in silence waiting to see how their master would react to this outburst. Many of them expected her to be struck down on the spot and the fact they she was not only confirmed in their minds that the masters themselves were afraid to do so. Though Phusha knew that it was not out of fear of her but instead fear of Adon that stayed their hand. The things that he might do to them for killing her were far more frightening then having to deal with her insolence.

. "What makes you say that there is any peace in order?" Nos Redna asked simply. "For even in order there is still struggle, in struggle does one grow stronger. If there is no struggle, weather it be it for food, power, wealth, or even the struggle over ones self, then there is complacency. In complacency there is no drive, nothing making you move forward. That only breads apathy, and apathy is death."

Phusha heard the wisdom in his words. She did not agree with them but she could not find fault in them ether. She opened her mouth to say something but Nos Redna continued to talk.

"But more then that this is not peace of others but the peace of ones own emotion. The Jedi teach that in order to use the force one must be at peace with themselves and everything around them. That however is an impossible task.

"No matter how hard you try you will never truly be a peace with yourself, there will always be something that will upset you. And how can you be at peace with the things around you when they themselves are never at peace with each other. So what the Jedi ask is impossible for one to achieve. When one is presented with a task that they can never achieve it will eat away at them and ultimately destroy them.

"It is Passion that fuels action, your want to do something and your desire to do it. The stronger this is the stronger you become. And from strength comes power. Threw power comes victory. And threw victory our chains are broken. Now what does that mean? Our chains are broken."

Nos Redna continued on with his lesson as if nothing had happened and Phusha sat there not saying a word in the rest of the class. Her attempt to disrupt the class by showing flaws in their teaching had only shown her own ignorance and had only served to further strengthen the Sith hold on the students.

After her humiliating failure at the hands of Nos Redna, Phusha felt she needed to redeem her pride in some way. The next morning she waited as the students practiced their lightsaber forms. As they did so she looked for the student who she knew to be the most skilled. No one else would do, this had to be an all or nothing gambit, then she waited for the sparing portion of the training to began. As the other students started to gather around the ring, Phusha stepped in before anyone realized what she was doing and in the process grabbed a student's training saber.

Phusha pointed to the student who she thought was the best and said. "I challenge him." Phusha knew that almost all the students here had been itching for a chance to put her in her place ever since she had come here. The students looked at Lord Cillas to see what he had to say. Cillas just stood there and smiled as if to say that he did not care what they did. The student who had been challenged eagerly stepped forward and smiled at her.

"Forgive me if I hurt you," he smirked. "I'm not accustom to holding back."

Phusha could hear the whispers of the other students. It was obvious that they did not think much of her chances and thought this fight would be over quickly.

Phusha had watched this man for the past couple of days and knew that he had excellent balance and speed and could mix lightsaber forms at random to whatever suited him best in a fight. These were all extremely valuable skills but Phusha could tell that this man had never been in a real fight. Even though the only rule of the training circle was to not kill the other person it was still limited. Each person had no real fear of death and fought to beat their opponent not to kill them.

They both took their fighting stance; Phusha went into a defensive stance showing weakness trying to draw him in and make her look weak and helpless, she purposely left wholes in her stance to make him think that she was inexperienced and did not know what she was doing. He took an offensive stance and held his lightsaber high above his head getting ready to end the match as soon as he could. He charged forward ready to strike, Phusha simply side stepped him and used her off hand to block the wooden blade. While it was not an actual lightsaber the blade was coated in a poison that would render anything numb on contact. Phusha's arm went numb and fell lifeless to her side but she used the opening it gave her and swung her lightsaber hitting him square in the back of his knee caps flinging him backwards; before he hit the ground Phusha brought the blade up and swung down hitting him in the chest. He gasped as the wind was knocked out of his lungs.

Phusha smiled at him as he laid there gasping for air like a fish out of water. She turned and threw the training blade back to the person she had taken it from and walked out of the training room her arm hanging at her side numb. She could hear the whispers coming from the students. She knew that she had shattered all previous thoughts about her being this weakling that knew nothing. Now she was the woman who could beat the best of them in only a few short seconds.

She started walking back to her room to take a slight nap before she went to get lunch. "Some might say that you cheated in that fight." A voice said behind her. Phusha turned around to see Gildie standing there looking at her from the shadows.

"How do you cheat in a fight?" she asked.

"In a real fight you would have lost your arm." he said.

"And he would have still lost his life."

He nodded in agreement. "that might be true but that would not be a real strategy in real combat as nobody would sacrifice their arm just to kill one person. "

"A Jedi might. Their life is sacrifice, and if they thought the lose of their arm would somehow save the lives of others they would sacrifice it in an instant to do so. And to say that no one would ever do something on the battle field is limiting as you are not preparing yourself for any situation so you will be caught off guard." she added. "there isn't a student that saw that little display that will ever fall for a similar trick."

Gildie nodded again. "You are right about that. In your act of revenge for what happened yesterday you have taught every one of them a valuable lesson." he smiled at her and walked off.

Phusha was almost to her room, her arm starting to regain feeling from the lightsaber blow. She walked into the room and sat down on the bead and closed her eyes. She reached out with the force and let it overcome her. She was trying to look into the future. She never believed in trying to see the future, she had always thought that you should let the future happen, and just looking never gave you the answer that you needed. And the few answers that you got only lead to more questions. But after what had just happened she needed to know what the future had in store for her.

The visions came to her almost immediately. She was sitting on the bridge of a ship, wearing the traditional Sith outfit of long flowing black robes. Her hair had deep red highlight streaks in it. She was obviously in control of what was going on around her and was gloating about something. Allis standing behind her wearing clothing that matched Phusha's.

There was a flash and she was in front of a large man wearing the common robes of the Jedi with a blue lightsaber in front of him. Though there was something in his eyes that told Phusha that this was not a Jedi. Another flash and she was lying on the ground in front of Gildie. He was standing there his lightsaber activated in front of him and he was breathing heavily, his clothing torn from battle. He smiled at his defeated enemy and said, "In what world did you ever think that you could defy the Sith?"

Phusha opened her eyes. She was sweating and her clothes were soaked. She looked at the time; she had been meditating for over six hours. She whipped the sweat from her head and got up to stretch her legs. She walked out the room into the now barren academy. She started to wonder around hoping that she would find something that she had never found before and to her surprise she did. She found herself in what looked like a library full of old paper books.

Phusha started to walk down the isles examining what was on them. Mostly they were filled with ancient Sith theology, and customs, most of witch she already knew. There were several volumes on the history of the Sith, all the grate wars and battles that lead them to here. To her surprise some of her own books had been placed among them. For the sake of curiosity she pulled one of her books of the shelf and flipped through it. She found nothing changed about it or any kind of tampering. They had simply read her books, liked what they read and put it in their library.

Placing her book back where she found it She then pulled off some other random book and quickly skimmed through it. It was a book on the history of the Sith. She did not find anything that she did not already know so she put the book back and pulled off another one. This one was about space battle tactics. Having no real knowledge on battle tactics Phusha sat down and started to read what the book said. She had almost finished the book when she heard a voice.

"Fascinating is it not?" Phusha jumped in her chair. She turned and saw Gildie standing there in the door way looking at her.

"What?" she asked closing the book.

"Knowledge." he said simply. "Most people think that the past cannot help you in the present." he continued. "Though when it comes down to it time is like a circle and in order to know what is going to happen in the future you have to look into the past." He came and sat down in front of Phusha. "That is why every student here is required to spend at least an hour every day in here reading from these books." he motioned with his hand. "You might have noticed some of the new volumes that we just added."

"I did." she replied. "I have been here quite some time and I was wondering if you could answer a question for me?"

"That is why I am here."

"What happened to Allis?" she asked straight out.

There was a look of puzzlement on Gildie's face that turned into a look of realization. "Oh the girl we found locked in your room that took a few shots at our men with a blaster." He smiled at the memory. "Yes, well it turns out that she is a force adept. So we took her to one of our training facilities, to train her in the basics of the force. You might very well see her here soon if she is good enough." Phusha was surprised by what he had just said. How did they think that they would be able to get a republic solder to turn against the Republic. But then Phusha knew better than most what the force could do someone's mind. She shuddered at the thought of what they were probably doing to her right now.

"Oh I have something for you." Gildie smiled and disappeared in a flash of black smoke. Phusha just sat there not sure what to expect. She figured she was in no real danger, if they were to kill her they would have done so by now. In a flash of black smoke he reappeared in the exact same spot with a bag in his hand. "This is the possessions that we took from your room, we searched threw it to make sure that nothing was dangerous or could help you escape in some way." he handed her the bag. She took it and looked through it. It contained her stuffed animal, her holo books and her little flashing disk in it. She sighed to herself when she saw the disk.

"Now I am going to hold on to this until I feel that you can be trusted with it." Gildie pulled out Phusha's lightsaber and held it in front of her. "Do you know how well this thing is put together?" he asked. "Tell me did you make this?"

"Yes." Phusha answered.

"Mind if I ask, how you know how to build a lightsaber.. Building a lightsaber is not an easy thing to do and your alignment of the crystal is perfect. Very few can make a lightsabers this good without considerable training and practice."

"I don't know how I know, I just do. Same with my books, I can't say how I know it all and I really don't think that I do. I only seam to really understand what's in my head when I write it down." Phusha explained.

"Well I in that case, it would hinder your learning process to make you stop writing." he smiled at her. "So if ever you feel that you need to express yourself, all you have to do is come in here and you will have all that you need." Gildie got up and walked out of the room.

Phusha sat there for a long moment thinking on what had just been said and then looked down at the bag full of her stuff. She slowly got up and, in a trance, walked back to her room. She put her stuff down and pulled out her stuffed animal and cradled it in her arms as she laid there.

For the first time since she got here she began to cry. Not because of the people that had died, nor because of anything that had happened, but because of what was going to happen. Phusha knew what was happening to her. She knew that no matter what she did that there was nothing that she could do to stop her from falling to the Dark Side. She knew that no matter for how long or how hard she fought she could not stop what was happening. And the fact that there was no hope for her was what made it worst of all. She knew that she would look back on this night and wonder what she found so sad about the night that she realized her destiny, or why she ever feared it.

She did not leave her room for days after that. She just laid in bed cradling her stuffed animal and staring mindlessly at the flashing disk on her night stand. The blinking having an almost hypnotic effect on her. For the first time in weeks she considered taking her own life. She knew that it would not be hard. It would be a simple matter of slitting her own wrist and letting herself bleed out. Or she could use the force and crush a capillary in her brain killing her instantly. The possibilities she knew were endless. After all there was no reason for her to keep on living. If she were to die now then she would have won. They wouldn't have been able to turn her into a Sith.

Every time she decided that she would do it, end her own life, she would sit up and prepare herself. Then she would see the flashing disk. Images of her father would flood threw her mind. The look of sorrow that he had on his face when he left her on Neven. The obvious regret that he had. But he did what he thought he had to do in order to protect her. To keep her safe. Then she pictured what kind of look he would have when he found out that instead of waiting for him to come she had taken her own life.

With that thought her determination became indecision and she would fall back onto the bed to try and figure out what she should do. After a while hunger and thirst had built and she knew that she would soon die of starvation or thirst before she even determined if she wanted to die. So eventually she climbed out of her bed. She placed her stuffed animal on the pillow and shuffled out of her room towards the cafeteria.

She ignored all the stairs and whispers as she passed people. She barely even noticed that they were there. She just walked on still in a trance. She wasn't sure what she said to the chief or even if she had said anything, the next thing she really remembered was sitting at one of the tables, drinking water and eating some soup and bread. It was not a meal time so there were very few others there. Mostly Sith Masters that were in between classes and were getting something to eat or drink or just taking a moment to converse with others.

"Hello there." a voice said. Phusha, startled by the sound of someone talking, jumped a little. She turned to see the boy that she had defeated before standing behind her. He was holding a tray of food in his hands. "Mind if I sit down?"

Phusha almost just brushed him away and any other day she might have but she was so out of it she just turned back around and moved over a little to give him room.

Taking that as permeation the boy took his tray and set it down across from her and sat down. He didn't start eating instead he just stared at her with a grin on his face. This did not look like someone who was sitting across from the person that had humiliated him in front of all his peers only a few days ago.

"I've been looking for you ever since you beat me you know?" he said, with a slight grin on his face.

Phusha did not say anything she just sat there blankly looking at her food her hands between her legs.

"I'm not mad if that is what you think." he continued after a moment. "See we are taught to respect those that are better than us, and if we wish to get revenge on them for something they did, get the ultimate revenge of one day besting them, not petty revenge of attacking them while they sleep." he explained. "for that kind of revenge is hollow. You have not proven that you are better only that you can beat them when you have every advantage."

"So then why are you talking to me?" Phusha said more in a whisper. Normally she would be more than egger to tear into what he had just said and figure out how a Sith can think that way and still consider themselves a Sith but today she could have cared lees.

"Because we are told that we must learn from those that are out betters, and up until the other day I thought I was the best at lightsaber combat, but you proved me wrong."

"I tricked you. If you had known that was my plan you could have countered and taken me out." Phusha stated.

"But you see, I didn't know that you were going to do that." he held up a finger to emphasize his point. 'you caught me so off guard I didn't even know what had happened until after I was on the ground gasping for air. That's my point."

"What's your point?" Phusha was starting to get frustrated. She could handle it if he wanted to yell or taunt her, but this perky attitude was getting annoying.

"My point is that I want you to train me."

Phusha's head shot up. Out of all the things he might have said that was the last that she ever thought that he would say. "you can't be serious."

"No I am." he assured her. "You are obviously better than me so I would be a fool not to try and learn from you."

"I doubt that the masters here would approve of me training you anything." Phusha said.

"We don't have to tell them." he said simply. "This way I get some extra training that none of the other students are getting and I become even better than I already am."

"And what do I get out of this?" Phusha asked still suspicious.

"Well first you would get a friend." he smiled. "and by the looks of things you could use a few of those. And second I can get you out of here."

Phusha perked up at his last comment. "How?"

"That is for me to know and for you to find out. But only after you have trained me." The boy leaned over the table and looked deep into her eyes.

Phusha thought about this boys offer. It was true that she was lacking in the friend department and this boy seemed friendly enough. And the thought of getting out of here, if it was true, was worth almost any price. The question was if he could be trusted. But looking into his eyes Phusha had no doubt that he at least thought he knew of a way of getting her out.

"Alright." she said finally.

The boy smiled and leaned back. "Great. This is just great. I'm Justin by the way. So when do we start?"


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

With Friends Like These.

A good friend can give you the strength necessary to do almost anything, but they can also weaken you so you can do almost nothing.

-Book of the Sith

-Lord Agnious, Sith Assassin

The moonlight was all the illumination on top of the Sith training academy. Making it so one would have to strain in order to see ether of the two people holding their training sticks out in front of them in ready position.

Justin was wearing only a pair of training pants, having discarded all his other clothing hours ago despite the cold of Malicor at night. Phusha was equally underdressed, wearing a bra and a pair of tight fitting shorts with her long black hair tied into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. Both of them were covered in sweat and painting for air. Though Phusha was doing her best not to appear as tiered as she really was.

Despite how easily she had beaten him the first time Justin was still and exceptional lightsaber duelist and his skill was closed to her own. At first Phusha thought that it would be easy to continue to find things to train him on, but Justin was a quick study and was learning things almost as fast as she could teach it to him.

To try and keep things challenging for him, she would spend most of the day writing out any knowledge she had on lightsaber forms, styles, technique, or anything else that she thought might be helpful. Then spend the rest of her time trying to learn it well enough so that she could teach it to Justin that night. She had started in recent weeks coming up with excuses as to why she could not make it some nights so that she would have more time to practice what she had learned.

The two clashed blades again. Justin trying to take the offensive while Phusha used her speed to avoid and block his blows while she waited for him to leave an opening. After a few clashes he backed off circling once more, trying to find a way around her guard.

Despite Justin's skill he had yet to be able to best Phusha when they spared. Even though Phusha would say that he was just as good if not better then her, he still had trouble pacing himself in a fight. If he did not beat her in the first few moves he would lose most of his speed and strength, then it was just a matter of waiting. He had been able to last longer in the past couple of weeks but every time they would clash and he had not laid a blow he would get more frustrated. He would try and use that frustration and turn it into anger but all that did was make his moves sloppier and left opening for her to take advantage of.

The agreement had been once Phusha had taught Justin everything that she could he would tell her his plan for getting her out of the academy. Phusha's first thought was to just give him a few lessons let him beat her and say that he now had learned everything that she could teach him. But she started to enjoy his company and enjoyed teaching him as well as spending time with him.

As the weeks went by Phusha became less then persistent in learning what his plans were, just being content with being around him, having someone to talk to that she wasn't afraid of or thought was trying to turn her to the Sith with everything that they did.

"I don't get it." Justin said finally. "No matter how hard I try I am still unable to predict your movements."

"I don't want you to try and predict my movements." Phusha said using this time to catch her breath. If she was not careful this could be the night that he finally was able to best her.

"But you said-"

"I said I wanted you to be able to figure out all my possible moves." Phusha interrupted. "there is a difference."

"How do you mean?"

"Let me show you." Phusha positioned herself to defend from an attack. "I am going to strike at you from up high. I want you to block it and just hold it."

"Alright…" he blocked Phusha's half forceful strike.

"Now that you have blocked my attack in order for me to do any other kind of attack I must first withdraw my lightsaber like this." she explained moving her blade back from his a few inches. "now by how I withdraw it you can determine all the possible places that I can strike at you next. So if I withdraw my blade and angle it to the right you know that I will be striking you some place to your left."

"but you can still strike almost anywhere on my left from that position." he pointed out.

"Yes but now you know I won't be striking you on your right, cutting my possible attacks in half." Phusha pointed out.

"But if I don't know how you are going to attack I still can't block it."

"Cant you?" she smiled. "Attack me the same way that I just attack you." he struck down at her head and she raised her blade to block. "now draw back and strike somewhere on my left." he did so but as he did Phusha moved her left foot behind her right repositioning her whole body out of the way of his strike, but keeping her lightsaber in the same spot.

Now missing a target Justin paused not sure what to do. Phusha struck at his wrist with a flick of her own numbing his hand so he dropped his blade. As he reached out with the force to catch it with his other hand in a vain attempt to salvage his attack Phusha held the end of her blade to his throat stopping his movement dead. She followed him with her blade as he straitened his back.

"See what I mean?' She smiled. "If you know how they are going to attack you can move accordingly." Phusha lowered her blade and Justin's muscles relaxed as he exhaled.

Justin shook his hand trying to regain feeling back into his now numb hand as he bent over and picked up his training saber. Phusha smiled as she turned the blade in her hand to the hilt was facing Justin.

"That's all for tonight." she said. "go get some rest and think about what I said."

He gave a slight nod as he took the training blade, to put them back from where ever he got them from every night. But as he was about to walk past her he stopped and leaned in, Phusha was not sure what he was doing and was about to push him way when he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks." he said and ran off back into the academy.

Phusha just stood there stunned. Her hand holding the side of her face where Justin had kissed her. She had never been kissed before and did not know how to react.

One of her Holo Stories was a romance holo. It told of two people brought together by fate and had to overcome obstacle after obstacle in order to be together. Phusha had always fantasized about having a love like that. Having everything in the universe trying to keep her and the one that she loved apart but in the end loved prevailed and they lived happily ever after.

Relationships where not forbidden at the academy, if anything they were encouraged. Two strong force users having a child lead to more force adepts that they could train in the ways of the Sith. But Phusha doubted that they would ever approve of her having a relationship with one of the students here.

Then the real question came to Phusha. Did she even like Justin in that way? She did not know. She had never had feeling for anyone in her life before. Maybe what she felt towards him was in fact love. He was attractive enough. He had strong facial features, and a well developed body. He would have been considered a prize by most that saw him.

But did he really like her? It was her understanding that the Sith did not form such attachments to people. That to do so would be to weaken ones self. That people were meant to be used and nothing more. But then these Sith seemed to surprise her at every turn. Nothing they did seemed to fit with what she knew of the Sith and on top of that Justin was a student, not a true Sith. He did not do everything the Sith teachers might say is the way to do something. Their training together, alone was proof of that.

Phusha gathered up her clothing and walked back to her room. Her hand was still over her cheek as she tried to work out what had just happened and what she should do next. At first she just thought that it was some kind of mistake. That she had miss understood what he meant. That she should just ignore it and go on with how things had been going. But then she thought that maybe he was putting himself out there. He was trying to find out how she felt about him and it was up to her to make the next move.

Phusha lay down on her bed and drew her stuffed animal in close to her chest her eyes wide open. She just lay there the rest of the night, her mind spinning to fast for her body to relax enough for her to fall asleep. Exhaustion finally took her just as the sun came up. She slept most of the morning but woke up just before lunch.

She quickly got up changing out of the still sweaty cloths that she had been wearing the night before into fresh clean cloths. Every day when the students were eating their lunch, Phusha and Justin would meet to determine when and where they would meat that night. They used the crowd to help hide their talking and they were constantly moving from one place to another to keep their training from being discovered.

Phusha slipped on her black pants and a black shirt, which was her custom attire now and started to head for the door. When she passed in front of the mirror she stopped. Looking at her face starring back at her. She bit her lip as she examined herself a little more closely. Finally she pulled out her ponytail and gave her hair a quick brush over; her pink highlights had all but faded from her hair. Then she took a wet rag and wiped off her face removing any dirt or sweat.

When she was satisfied with what she saw she ran out of the room. She slowed to a walk as she neared the cafeteria not wanting to draw attention to herself. She waited in line behind all of the other students that had gotten there before her. She liked to get their before the real lunch rush not liking to spend most of her time waiting in line, but she had slept in to late to do that today.

After finally getting her food she scanned the room looking for Justin. The problem was that almost everyone at the academy wore the same clothing and had similar hair styles. Long black robes with short cut hair. Usually it was Justin's job to find her.

Finally she saw his blond hair and headed over to him. There was no one sitting around him. Some of this was due to not wanting anyone to be sitting close to them as they talked but it mostly had to do with the fact that he had been shunned by most everyone since Phusha had beaten him so badly. They thought him unworthy of the title of Sith. Justin told her that he did not mind because in truth they did not want to believe that someone of his skill could have been so easily beaten by an outsider, that if that were the case then that meant that all of them were at risk.

Justin told Phusha that he would show them all when he beat every last one of them in the sparing circle using his new abilities that Phusha had taught him. This thought did give her a little warmth that she was doing something to help him even though it was her that had caused his current predicament.

"About time." Justin said as Phusha sat down across from him. "Thought that you weren't going to show up today."

"I just over slept, that's all." she said starting to eat her food so she would not have to look at him. For she knew that if she started looking at him she would start to think about the kiss and what that might have meant.

"Didn't realize that I had worn you out that much last night." he smiled.

Phusha blushed. "No it's just after words I did some writing and lost track of time and didn't fall asleep until this morning."

"Ah, I see." he nodded seeming to buy her lie. "so did you write about anything good?"

"Maybe, I will have to work on it a little more before I try and show you."

"Well I guess I will have one more thing to look forward to other than seeing you half naked that is."

Phusha could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. He was being so forward and direct. Where had this come from? Or had he always been this direct and she just hadn't noticed it before.

"Yes well," Phusha coughed trying to clear the catch in her throat. "if you don't mind I would like to skip this evenings training session to give me more time to figure some things out."

"Alright what ever you say. You are the boss." he smiled at her again. "when we first met didn't you have pink highlights in your hair?"

The change of subject threw Phusha off. She instinctively started running her fingers threw her hair. "yeah but it wasn't anything permanent. Just some dies I made back on Neven. That's all."

"Well I thought you looked really pretty with those highlights." Justin said getting up to throw away his trash and head back to his classes.

Phusha just sat there for a few moment trying her best not to giggle. Justin thought that her hair was pretty. That thought brought more collar to her cheeks then any of the other comments that he had made.

What was wrong with her? How could she let this one boy affect her so much? A boy who by all definitions was still her enemy. Someone she only tolerated because he promised her a way out of this place. Someone who could and still might betray her.

But Justin would never do that. She thought. I trust him. And more then that I like him and he likes me. She blushed again and got up from her seat and headed to the library to do some writing.

She had been telling Justin the truth about her finding out an interesting type of lightsaber combat. She had just lied on the when. She had been working on it for the better part of a week and had it down herself almost good enough that she thought she could start to teach it to him.

She sat down in the library in her usual spot. There were several blank books and a writing utensil their waiting for her. The book that she had been writing in had been moved since the other day. No doubt Gildie or one of the other Masters reading her work to not only make sure that it would be ok for them to place it in their own library but also just to find out what she knew that they might not.

There were a few others in the library doing various research. Most of them were students putting in their hour of study for the day, but there were a few that were trying to find the answer to some question or another. Phusha had been surprised to find just how many scholars there were among these Sith.

Apparently Adon encourages trying and finding answerers to the higher mysteries in life and the universe. That it is only threw the pursuit of knowledge on all things can your strength and power truly grow. That having strength meant nothing if one did not know the best way on how to use it. That blind obedience was only a quality welcome to those who served the Sith not in the Sith themselves.

"Hey Phusha." one of the more scholarly ones called out to her. "Haven't seen you in a little while. Why don't you come over here with us? We are talking about something that you might be able to help us with."

Phusha curiously got up and crossed over to where the three others were seated. She had talked to these three on an occasion. It was more her trying to figure out how these Sith thought then it was what she would call any kind of philosophical discussion.

"What's going on?" she asked sitting down next to the one that invited her over. His name was Tublen a Deva'rodin. The two sitting across from him were a human named Jonathan and a female Zabrak named Joslin.

"You see," Tublen started diving right in. "Joslin here says that if your master shows any sign of weakness that it is our duty as Sith to kill him and take your master's place." Tublen explained. "I say that she is stupid and wouldn't know the duty of the Sith if we bit her with it. And Jonathan of course sustains from making a decision on the matter."

Phusha looked at them a little confused. "So what do you want from me? I'm not a Sith."

"Yes but you know a lot about their ideology and you are the only one here that can give a truly neutral view on the situation." Tublen said.

"We want you to give us your opinion not based on what you think is right or wrong, but what you think best fits into the Sith beliefs." Joslin said.

"Well what is your definition of weakness?" Phusha asked still trying to understand what was going on.

"Anything that would weaken you." Joslin said instantly.

"I think what Phusha is trying to ask is how does one define an act that is solely based on perspective and circumstance." Jonathan chimed in.

"Sure." Phusha agreed not sure if she really did or not. "why don't you give me an example of what you would consider a weakness?"

"You conquer a place and you have several solders hostage, and the officer in charge decides to spare them even though he knows that the enemy is getting ready for a counter offensive and will be there in no time. So instead of preparing his own forces the commander is wasting time with POWs." Joslin said.

"But Adon teaches us that we should not slaughter our prisoners. That it is far more effective to let them live to turn them against their former masters or to tell others of their defeat." Tublen said.

"But if sparing people will get you killed then you should just kill them and be done with it." Joslin shot back.

"If you are smart about it-" Tublen started but Jonathan raised his hand and cut him off.

"We asked what Phusha thought. So let's let her answer." Jonathan said.

Phusha thought about it for a moment. "Well why did he spare the solders?"

"I don't know because he wanted to. Does it matter?" Joslin asked.

"Well yeah it does." Phusha said. "What if the commander knew that the forces that were coming to attack them were superior then his so he planed to use the POWs as bait to distract the enemy or something like that giving his men the opening they need. But now you thought that he was showing weakness and killed him and now you are in command. You kill the POWs and now you have no real way of defending yourself against this army that is stronger then your own."

"If that were the case then the commander should explain what he is doing." Joslin stated.

"So now you would have officers explaining every order that they give to their subordinates?" Tublin asked.

"Well no-" Joslin started.

"So then just the ones that might be considered weakness. But since they do not think of it as a sign of weakness they don't think to explain it, or worse yet they think that everything they do could be a sign of weakness so they explain everything anyway." Tublin shot back at her.

"Well no I'm not saying that ether." Joslin stammered trying to find a way out of this. "but the second in command should have the right to ask for an explanation if their commander does something that might be considered weakness."

"So then the real answer to our question is that if Commanders show weakness then it is our duty to find out if it really is weakness before we act." Jonathan said.

"No that's not what I am saying at all." Joslin snapped.

"That is what you just said." Tublin said getting frustrated.

"No you just miss understood me."

"Then why don't you explain to us what you meant." Tublin ordered.

"Thank you Phusha." Jonathan said over the rough or the other two. "you did raise a very interesting point."

"Ah, no problem. I guess." she gave a weak smile.

"These two will be at it for the next hour or so, but you should come back some time. It is always good to have another mind in our little-"

"No I did not just say that!"

"Yes you did! What do you need me to record everything that you say so I can play it back for your pointy head?"

"-talks." Jonathan finished.

"Thank you I'll think about it." Phusha said standing up.

"That is all I ask." he smiled and Phusha walked back to her little spot and started to write in her book. She needed to finish this by tonight so that she would have plenty of time to practice it before she tried to teach it to Justin tomorrow.

But for the first time since she got to the academy she did not see the place as some sort of training ground of evil. There were real people here and they acted like normal people trying to find their place in the galaxy. And for them that place was with the Sith.

"Hey you died your hair." Justin said as Phusha walked out onto the roof of the academy.

"Yeah you like it?" Phusha blushed instinctively reaching for her newly died hair with red steaks going threw it. Trying to hide her face she walked over to the ledge and started taking of her shirt and pants to get ready for the nights training, leaving her in her normal tight shorts and bra. The air was cold and her skin broke out in goose bumps. But those would go away once they got going.

"Yeah I do." he smiled. "I actually like the red better then the pink." Justin tossed Phusha her training saber. Justin had already taken his shirt off, his toned, bronzed body gleaming in the moon light. Accentuated by his blond hair.

"Well I couldn't find pink I could only find red and black and as I thought black wouldn't work to well with my hair I went with red." Phusha was rambling and she knew it but the words just seemed to be flowing out of her.

"Well lets get started. You have no idea how excited I want to learn this secret style." he smiled raising his training blade in the ready stance.

"Now this lightsaber form is called Yodem. It is a little complicated. and is meant to take a defensive appearance but it is actually a very aggressive form." Phusha said as she lowered her blade down holding it in one hand the tip resting near her foot. "Try and hit me." she nodded initiating the training.

Justin raised his blade and charged forward swiping downward as he got close. Phusha sidestepped him letting him pass by her as she got out of the way. To keep her from striking him in the back Justin spun around swinging his sword across his body. Phusha just leaned back and let the blade cross harmlessly in front of her body. Justin brought his blade ready to lung his left shoulder forward. Phusha stepped to his left side as he lunged moving away from any possible counter attack, and stuck him in the back.

Justin fell to the ground as his body went numb. The wooden blade clanking the ground a few feet in front of him. Phusha walked over and picked it up to hold it as she waited for him to regain feeling.

"This form is good for facing one or multiple opponents." she explained. "You let your opponent tier themselves out while you conserve your energy. It also allows you to buy time while you figure out their weaknesses."

He nodded in understanding listening but unable to move. "Is the Yodem style the one you used to beat me that first time that we fought?"

"Yodem is the same concept. I didn't really use a style or form that day. It was more just impulse." She said. "And once you regain feeling I will show you how to use it yourself." she smiled. She couldn't help but stair at the attractive man laying at her feet. She wanted so badly just to lay down next to him. To feel his strong body pressed up against hers. But that would be wrong and she knew it. She had to stay focused. After all once she had trained Justin he would show her how to escape from this place and she would never see him again.

Unless she decided to stay. Train to become a Sith. Her and Justin could be together. Would that be so bad?

Phusha shook the thought out of her head. Yes it would be so bad. She wouldn't become a Sith just so that she could be with a boy. Even if it was a boy that she had fallen in love with.

The rest of the night was running drills. Teaching Justin the foot work and how to position his lightsaber as he moved so his guard looked down but was still in a position to be brought up to defend himself if needed.

The next night was half drills and half sparing, to put it into practice so Phusha could see what he had gotten down and what he sill needed to practice. The night after that was a few drills and mostly sparing. By the end of the third night they were both on the roof sweating.

"I'm impressed," Phusha said in-between breaths. "You learned this very quickly."

"Well I got a grate teacher." he flashed her a smile as he patted himself down with a towel.

Phusha blushed and turned away. Hoping that the red in her face would be mistaken from heat. "I do have a favor to ask of you though."

"Name it." Justin became strait and ridged.

"I ask that you do not use the Yodem style in the training circle."

"What why?"

"Because if the others saw you using a form that they have never taught you then they will ask how you learned it and they might figure out that we have been training together and you could get into serious trouble."

Justin thought it over for a moment. Phusha knew that he would have wanted to use it as soon as possible, but if the masters ever found out that they were training together then they would no longer be able to meat and that could crush her as much as anything else.

"Alright." he nodded. "I promise that I won't use this form until you say it is alright."

"Thank you." she smiled. "If it makes you feel any better you have pretty much learned as much of the Yodem style as you can from me. Now the only way to really get better is to use it."

"That does make me feel better actually." he nodded. "And I think I have something that you will like."

"And what would that be?" Phusha looked at him not sure what to expect.

"Well two things actually, but they are kind of related." he walked over to his pile of clothes and pulled out a small box and handed it to Phusha. "I made this for you. It is something for you to remember me by."

Phusha took the box from his hand and slowly opened it. Inside was a beaded bracelet. The beads were two different kinds of gems, one was a metallic black sort of stone the other was a deep pink stone that seemed to glow a little.

Phusha took out the bracelet and let it slide over her hand onto her wrist. "It's beautiful." she whispered. "Justin I don't know what to say."

"Well I know that you like the collar pink and there is this rock on Malicor IV that has some unique properties to it and I thought that you would like it." He smiled at her moving in close. Too close.

Phusha's heart started to race as she felt his breath on her bare shoulder. "Wait, why would I need something to remember you by?" she asked suddenly picking up on his choice of words.

"Well you know how I promised you to get you out of this place right?" Phusha nodded that she remembered. "Well tomorrow is the night that you are going to do it."

"Why tomorrow?"

"Because tomorrow a friend of mine will be the only one guarding the shuttle bay. All I have to do is get him to be someplace else and you can take a shuttle and get off this planet before the others even know that you are gone." Justin explained.

"But won't your friend get into trouble for letting me escape?"

"Well he wont know that he let you escape." Justin pointed out. "And when I said that he was a friend of mine I might have more meant that he is a moron that needs to die slowly." he laughed and Phusha laughed with him.

Phusha was unsure what she should do. This was her chance to get off this world and go. Go where? She didn't know anyone outside of the academy. Any Stebyn that she knew on Neven was probably dead, and if they weren't they wouldn't take her back after she had probably caused the deaths of so many of them.

But if she stayed here what would happen? The Sith Lords continue to work on her. Slowly turning her into a servant of the dark side.

No, she had to leave. The sooner the better and she knew that. But looking into Justin's eyes made it so much harder.

"Tell me when and where." Phusha gave him a half smile but her voice was definitive. Tomorrow she would leave on a shuttle or die trying.

"Meat me outside the shuttle bay around midnight." Justin said. "I will go and distract the guards and make sure that there is no one else around so they don't know that I was involved."

"Why don't you come with me?" she blurted out before she even realized what she was saying.

Justin reached up and touched her chin. "I cant do that."

"Why not?" now that she had said it she was bound to make it work.

"Because," he leaned in and kissed her. She did nothing to stop him instead went up on her tip toes to make it easier for their lips to meat. "Because as much as I like you." he continued after he broke away. "my place is here."

Phusha berried her face into his shoulder trying her best not to cry. "Thank you so much." she said. "you saved me. You saved me in ways that you will never know."

Justin wrapped his arms around her holding her close. They just stood there for a long time, saying nothing. Finally Justin pushed Phusha away from him and looked into her eyes. Much like he did the first day that they had talked.

"Go to bed and get some sleep." he said in a voice that was so caring and loving. "you need to be well rested."

Phusha nodded. "Alright."

Phusha did sleep if not peacefully. She was constantly tossing in her bed. There was a feeling in her gut that made it impossible for her to get into a deep sleep. When she awoke the next day it was nearing midday. Phusha was not sure what she should do for the rest of the day. She didn't want to draw suspicion to herself by suddenly becoming a recluse but she didn't want to brake her norm and make herself to sociable.

She decided that she would settle for going to the library and do some reading. This would probably be the last time that she would ever get a chance use any of the information there and she might as well make the best of it.

Phusha was careful to avoid Tublin, Joslin, and Jonathan, who were also in the library. She did not want them to draw her into another one of their discussions and possibly notice that she was acting nervous, which she was sure that she was.

She pulled a book off one of the shelves that was about the Infinite Empire and their first contact with the Sith species. There was something that quickly caught her eye. The leader of the Sith at the time was by the name of Aden. He was killed in one of the final battles against the Infinite Empire. But the thing that interested her the most was that the Sith believed Aden to be the Sithare, or the perfect embodiment of all their teachings. That Aden was immortal and lived for nearly a thousand years.

Phusha remembered that her Stebyn bodyguard had said that her father was the Sithare. Did that have some sort of connection, or maybe her father was a descendent of his. But that couldn't be it. Aden was a pure blooded Sith. They had red skin and tendrils on their face where Phusha as far as she could tell was a pure blooded human.

Maybe though it was long enough ago that the Sith bloodline had been so diluted that it was no longer noticeable.

Phusha then went through every book that she could find on Aden or the Sithare. When she couldn't find much of anything else she broadened her search to the original Sith Empire hoping that maybe one of the Lords that took power would have made a similar clam as Aden.

Defeated and out of ideas Phusha sat in the library surrounded by stacks of books that had lead her ultimately no where. She looked around the room and realized that it was completely deserted. Suddenly worried she checked the time and saw that it was almost midnight.

Frantically Phusha got up and rushed to her room. She had to get ready to meat Justin or she might never get off this planet.

Would that be so bad? She wondered.

She shook her head brushing the thought out of her mind. She had to get out of here and she had to go and find her father where ever he might be. Phusha knew that the force would guide her.

Phusha got to her room and grabbed a leather bag and started to pack her things. She shoved her stuffed animal and flashing disk into it. She debated on weather she should take her holo novels and finally shoved them in her bag as well. She grabbed the food that she had placed in her room. She liked to sometime just snack on something so she always kept a stash of nonperishable food. As she shoved the last bit of dehydrated bred into her bag she saw Justin's bracelet still around her wrist.

She paused for a moment to look at it. The pink beads glowing mesmerizing her. This was her last chance to stay and be with him. But could she do it? Become a Sith. Embrace their teachings, use the dark side of the Force.

But were these even real Sith? Sure they believed in the dark side of the force and the Sith code but they believed in things like friendship and love. That helping others succeed helped you at the same time. And then there was Justin. He wasn't evil. He was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Phusha smiled. She would stay, she decided. She would stay and be with Justin. But she still needed to find him and keep him from continuing his plan.

Phusha ran out of her room towards the shuttle bay at the other end of the academy. She had gone there a few times when she first arrived when she was still trying to find a way to escape, but hadn't been back much since she determined that getting out that way was impossible.

But not for Justin. He had found a way.

Phusha saw Justin standing at the intersection near the shuttle bay. He looked anxious and was constantly checking down the hall. Her heart started to race as she got close to him.

"Justin." she called out to him in a loud whisper.

He turned and looked at her. "About time you got here. I said midnight not sometime after."

"I'm sorry, but I got some good news." she smiled.

"It's going to have to wait." he cut her off. "we only got a small window here." he started to move down the hallway when Phusha grabbed his wrist and brought him back.

"That's just it. I'm not going." She said keeping her voice low so that no one would hear her. "I'm going to stay here with you. I'll become a Sith and we can be together."

"What are you talking about." he whispered. "you have to go. Its what you have wanted ever since you got here."

"That was before I met you." she stated. "I want to be with you, even if that means staying here."

"You shutta." Phusha gasped. She couldn't believe what she had just heard Justin call her. She had never herd him say anything like that before especially not to her.

"What?"

"You heard me." he spat. The look in his eyes was something that she had never seen before. It was full of hate and anger. "I knew making you fall in love with me might be going to far, but I was worried you would not trust me otherwise."

"Justin what are you talking about?" Phusha's head was swimming. She didn't understand what was going on. What did he mean making her fall in love with him.

"I'm saying that it was to much to hope for that you would get killed while trying to escape the academy, after I sucked you dry for any skills that I could use that is."

"I don't understand."

"Of course you don't." he snapped. "because you are to stupid to see what is right in front of you." he was no longer trying to keep his voice down. "You humiliated me in front of everyone, when you bested me so quickly. I had spent years proving myself as one of the strongest and best at this academy and you came along and in one second took it all away from me."

"Justin I'm sorry." Phusha didn't know what else to say. She still couldn't believe what she was hearing. Something else must be going on. He couldn't mean all these things that he was saying. He loved her.

"You're sorry? that's all you have to say? You're sorry." he mocked. "But you see I knew that you had to have used some sort of trick when you beat me so I vowed that I would learn it and use it to reclaim my lost glory. But more than that I had to make you pay for what you did to me." Justin was almost fuming now.

"So I devised a way to get you to teach me this secret style, but in order to do that I had to build your trust. So I promised you a way out of this place if you trained me. But despite over two months of working the angles you still refused to teach me what I wanted to know so I had to step up my game. I pretended to fall in love with you. Oh how easy you fell for it. Commenting on your hair. Giving a little kiss. Making you a worthless bracelet make out of some scraps I found in the dumpster."

Phusha could feel her heart braking as he talked. Had it all really been a lie? Could she have really been that blind. Then she realized that maybe she had. The way that Justin looked at her when he talked. He had been using the force on her to sway her thinking. Not enough for her to notice but enough to push her just a little more in the right direction. And she had fallen for it, completely and utterly.

"And sure enough, I get you to fall in love with me and you teach me the Yodem Form. With that form I shall reclaim what I lost by besting every single one of those insects and proving that I am the best. But first I had to exact my revenge on you. I knew I could never kill you. The masters would find out and have me killed. But if they were the ones that killed you then they would only have themselves to blame."

"And it might have worked too." a voice said. It seemed to come from all around them. Then a shadow suddenly started to materialize and become a tall human with short black hair. "But you pushed her to hard."

"Lord Gildie." Justin gasped the confidence that he had a moment ago gone from his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking after my most promising student." he smiled.

"I'm honored that you would think of me that way but-" Justin started.

"Oh do not flatter your self." Gildie said snapping his fingers. Several Sith Assassins dropped their force cloak. They were blocking all the paths of escape. They had them trapped and Gildie knew it. "I am talking about Phusha." he placed one of his hands on her shoulder and drew her to him.

"She is by far more powerful than you will ever be if not a bit naïve." Gildie smiled. "Now Justin you know that learning anything from Phusha was forbidden. And that to do so would be a punishable offence."

"But you refused to teach me what she used to defeat me." Justin said pressing his back against the wall as if it would somehow let him threw.

"She beat you because of your own overconfidence and stupidity." Gildie snapped. "It had nothing to do with any kind of special or secrete style."

"No I refuse to believe that!" his voice more of a shrill than a real yell.

"Believe what you want, that wont change the facts." Gildie said, then he leaned in, his lips next to Phusha's ear and said in a whisper loud enough for Justin to hear. "Now you will want to watch this next part. Remember how this makes you feel and use this feeling to make yourself stronger." he nodded at one of the Sith Assassins, and the assassin started to move toward Justin drawing his lightsaber. With a snap hiss the purple blade activated.

"What are you doing? Wait!" he pleaded. The assassin didn't even pause as he rammed the boy threw the chest. Justin gasped and fell to the ground as the assassin withdrew his lightsaber, deactivating it.

Phusha wanted to cry out. To tell them to stop. But then she remembered all the things that Justin had said to her. How he had used her. Made her fall in love with him. How he had lied to her to get her to train him. How he had wanted to kill her. And her voice died in her throat, because in that moment she wanted him dead. She wanted that more than anything else in the galaxy. She wanted him to suffer as she was suffering now. And she wanted it to last for years, and even then it might not be long enough.

Gildie nodded at the other assassins and they turned and walked away their job finished. "Now let us get you back to bed shall we?" he smiled at her squeezing her shoulder.

He lead her threw the academy back to her room. Never letting go of her shoulder as they walked. Phusha in turn did nothing to fight him. When they got there he led her to her bed laying her down. He pulled the covers of the bead over her body up to her shoulders.

"Aren't you going to kill me too?" Phusha asked, wanting nothing more at that moment than to die. Then maybe her pain would stop.

"Now why would I go and do that?" Gildie asked sitting down on the side of her bed.

"I trained him. If learning from me is punishable by death shouldn't training him be also?"

"You are allowed to do whatever you want while you are here. With the one exception that you are not allowed to leave the academy. That means you can talk to or train whomever you want." Gildie said. "But he was not allowed to take any training you might offer him."

"What's the difference?"

"The difference being that what he did was wrong and what you did was not." he smiled at her. "Are you in pain right now?" he asked.

Tears came to Phusha's eyes. The look on Justin's face. The pure look of hatred he had towards her. How could she have been so stupid? "My heart feels like it is in a million pieces." she cried turning her head into her pillow to try and hide there.

"It is alright." he soothed brushing her hair gently. "he used you. Made you feel things. Then betrayed you. This feeling you have is only natural."

"But I don't want to feel this way. I want the pain to go away." she cried into her pillow.

"I could do that for you if you wanted me too. Make the pain go away." Phusha turned her head to look at him. "I could teach you how to take that pain and turn it into anger. Into power. But only if you want me to. Tell me Phusha, do you want me to teach you how to make the pain go away?"

Phusha looked into his eyes. Not wanting to trust anyone ever again. But his promise to end the pain that she felt sounded to appealing to pass up. Phusha glanced down at the bracelet that she was still wearing. The bracelet that Justin had made for her. The one that he said was junk that he found and he used to make her have stronger feelings for him.

Phusha took off the bracelet and gripped it in her hands wanting to crush it into powder. "Yes." she said finally. "Yes I want you to teach me how to make the pain stop. I want you to teach me how to use it to make me stronger. Make me so I never have to feel this way again."

Gildie cupped both his hands around Phusha's hand that was holding the beads. "I can do that." he promised and squeezed her hand gently. He gave her a warm smile and stood up and walked out of her room. Phusha opened her hand that had been holding the beads. Black and pink dust came poring out and fell to the floor.

Phusha wiped off her hand on the sheets of the bed and put it under her head for some support.

Anything to make the pain go away. She thought. Anything.


End file.
